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Some sources have referred to the two-hour PBS special The Magnificent Voyage of Christopher Columbus as a miniseries--an understandable misconception, in that the program was adapted from the seven-part 1991 BBC series Columbus and the Age of Discovery, upgraded to High-Def. Using actual-size replicas of the Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria, the series' producers recerated Columbus' first Atlantic crossing under most of the same circumstances that the explorer encounted way back in 1492. But though the special celebrated Columbus' achievements, it did not flinch in its scrutiny of the negative aspects (slavery, disease etc.) of Europe's invasion of the New World, nor did it bypass the irony of the fact that Columbus went to his grave never realizing that he had discovered two new continents. The Magnificent Voyage of Christopher Columbus first aired in most American TV markets on October 8, 2007.